First Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church (Saint Paul, Minn.).

According to the congregation's centennial publication, the history of the First Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church divides into three principal periods: The Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church (1854-1873), the period of separation (1873-1948), and then the St. John's Methodist Church (1948- ), in which the two separated congregations reunited.

The Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church began with a small group of Swedish and Norwegian Methodist families that met informally and sought a Scandinavian alternative to the English-language Methodist congregation in the city. The first official quarterly conference occurred in 1854, with the church occupying the old Jackson Street schoolhouse. A church building was completed in 1855 at the corner of Tenth and Temperance streets that served the congregation through 1887.

In 1873 a small group of non-Swedish Scandinavians organized the First Norwegian-Danish Methodist Episcopal Church, which thereupon served that language group until 1948. The remaining majority of the Scandinavian congregation renamed themselves the First Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church, remaining in the existing building. In 1921 the Norwegian-Danish congregation purchased the Emanuel Lutheran Church building at the corner of Aurora Avenue and St. Albans St., subsequently changing their name to the Aurora Methodist Episcopal Church of St. Paul. Following the 1924 completion of a new, larger church building at Hamline and Charles avenues in the Midway District, the Swedish congregation changed its name to the Midway Methodist Church. By this time all its worship services and business were being conducted in English.

In 1948, following the sale of the Aurora Methdoist Church building, the Norwegian-Danish and the Swedish congregations reunited as St. John's Methodist Church, establishing themselves in the Midway Methodist Church building, which was being expanded significantly .